From Canada to Panama with Janel Phillips

SPEAKER_00 0:15

My business is your business. It's all up in my lady business. With me. Very easy. Welcome to All Live in My Lady Business. Today I am super excited to have Janelle Phillips on the old Potter Rooney. Janelle is coming to us straight from Panama. Straight out of Hello, hello. Straight out of Cambuetal. Janelle owns the uh Sansara, the yoga retreat that I go to every year that I talk about all the time on this podcast. And it seemed only right to uh get the reason that I have a happy place to go to uh can can come on here and and be a part of this magic. So thanks so much for uh taking time out of your paradise life and uh talking to me today.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Thanks, Mary. I'm so excited. I love you and I love your spirit, so I'm so happy to bring a little warmth to the other side of where you are right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's both uh metaphorically and awfully cold up here. So um uh I'll take it. I really I know I I kind of know your story about how you have you wound up in like who like in Canada and Canada Dolphin the first in the first place, and then like how you know you started out in Canada as like a fancy athlete along with your husband Mike. So I would love to hear. Can you give us a little bit of your your story about how you wound up where you're at and who you are and why you're awesome?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Sure. In that order. I would love to share. In that order. Okay. Not really. It was 2011, and we were we're from Saskatchewan, so it's the north of Canada, cold as hell. And it was beginning of December, and it was already minus 30 degrees, and we were just really wondering, what are we doing? We need to take a little step away. I owned another yoga company down there as well, and I was pretty burnt out. And I said, let's just figure out a way where we can maybe pull away for a couple of weeks and let's just find a seat sale, somewhere where we can surf, somewhere that has, you know, just endless stretches of private beaches, wherever we want to go. So we decided that we would just look up cheapest flight prices, and Panama ended up winning for us. So we're like, hey, either one of us have been there. That sounds great. Let's go. Really, not really much of a plan attached to us at all. Got to Panama, we flew in and we went to the Caribbean side, which was lovely, but it was raining and we just came from snow and we just were craving vitamin D. And we said, Oh, I wonder if we fly to the other side of the country and maybe check that out. So we had about five days left of our vacation and we stumbled upon Tambu Tal and it was perfect. Nobody was here. And that's exactly what I needed. I just needed the opportunity to disconnect, to not have a cell phone, a computer, and honestly, just people around. And Mike and I just had the best time drinking 50 cent beers, tuna plates for$2.50, surfing uncrowded waves. And we just made the most of those last remaining five days. And we got back to Canada and we were really wondering what we were going to do with our life because it just felt like we were at this crux of like, do we want to start a family? What does that look like? Um, can we continue on this path of just like working all the time and not making time for enjoyment? And how could we maybe blend both worlds of building something that can be very special, that can be a part of our purpose, and also could create like just a really wonderful life if we choose to have a family down the line. And so just a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

I know you guys have like big sport backgrounds. Um, like how did how did you guys even wind up together? Like, what did you think you were going to be doing with your life when you were a little kid?

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Oh, I know, right? Um, so I come from a basketball background and I played college basketball and I had a little stint overseas as well. And we just and Mike, his background is in big mountain free skiing. He was a professional skier and a professional mountain biker. And oddly enough, we're both from Saskatchewan, which is the flattest prairies, prairie land. It's it's insane. Um isn't it above like North Dakota? Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly. Like the worst part of America. Mm-hmm. It's it's very cold. I mean, it's good, good people, good place to be from. But I had met Mike actually when he was finishing up his ski career. He had broken his back when he was about 26 years old. And he, you know, kind of said goodbye to that sport at that time. And he went and he worked over in Grand Cayman Island as a snorkel guide instructor, healed his back, couldn't be around his friends because he just couldn't be in the sport that he once loved and he couldn't just be around it. So he was over in Grand Cayman and he has a construction background, and he wasn't utilizing that at the time. But shortly after his time in Grand Cayman, a Hurricane Ivan rolled through there and it basically leveled the whole island. So he was there as a part of the rebuilding component and he ended up partnering with the same company that he was working for in the adventure guide industry. Said, hey, you have construction background. Would you like to go into partnership and help rebuild this town? And he was like, Okay, sure. So he ended up, you know, learning a lot about tropical building at that time, helped rebuild this space and had a lot on his plate. And he was there for a while, ended up moving back to Canada, kind of at the same time that I was finishing up basketball and university, and I was teaching in Canada. And we sort of met at the same time. And it was Kismet because we had like an instant attraction and we were saying, like, where are you from? What do you do? And we're like, we ended up finding out that we were actually grew up one kilometer away from one another and we never even knew who each other were. He's seven years older than me, so that probably has something to do with it. Um, but in the next breath, it was like this automatic, like, love for travel, great conversation. And our relationship just started to take place. And less than a year later, we found ourselves on this Panama trip. And then six months later, we were married and engaged. And at our wedding, we then told everyone about how we had this amazing five days in this small town, and we're actually gonna move there in three months. And it was a bit of a mic drop at our wedding. Everyone's like, So that's why you didn't ask for anything but money for your registry. And I said, Yes. And this is what we're doing. And everyone, we told, we chose to tell my mom and Mike's dad because we felt like that would be maybe a safer bet. We didn't know how my dad would react, and we didn't know how his mom would react. And everyone was super supportive. Both parents were like, good, go do it. You should do that. And December 1st of 2012, we packed up four bags. We did not have property bought, we did not have a clue what we were doing. And we made our way back to Cambu Tal as it stood out in those five days, and you know, and then it just started to unroll.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

That's insane. That's a great story. I love that Mike's crazy. And it's it's interesting. It's like one of these things where like every like you, you know, it's like it feels like the universe puts everything in front of you. You just have to kind of see it. And it's like Mike learning how to like build in a jungle. Like that has to be a completely different animal than building, you know, like for concrete that will cure and won't crack in minus 30 degrees, you know, whatever. Like that's like I know learning that is such a cool thing.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

I know we said like all these little stepping stones because people say, Oh, were you in hospitality before you open Censor? I'm like, no. They're like, well, what did you do? I'm like, Oh, I was a special education teacher. And they're like, okay. I was like, I just learned that you'd have to treat people great. And that's actually a very simple recipe to anything in life. It's like the golden rule of how we manage our staff. It's just like treat people how you want to be treated. And it ends up being a real recipe for success. And that is honestly was sort of the ethos of everything. It was like we show up every day. Mike, even though he had didn't have the language at the time, was on site with the construction guys, paying equitable wages, paying people appropriately, teaching and empowering them. And I mean, he's now has like a construction company aside from Sensara of like 36 people. And we have a staff of 44 that has a longevity, as you know, Mary, you see the same faces annually over the last how many years. And it's just, you know, building a community and building a space at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

I feel like the people that work there are like my friends now. Right. Like it feels like they're you really have a great group of people around you and they have stayed around. I mean, I've seen the exact same people with very in people come in and then they stay. So I mean, I think that's that's a really big and it it's interesting to go back to like just the idea that um, yeah, I just treat people the way I want to be treated. And like that's such a especially coming down there because I was just there, you know, three weeks ago or however long I was less than a month ago I was there. And you know, having so much has happened in America in the last year. I don't know if you're aware of it. Uh, but uh I wish you weren't. I wish you could, I bet you could probably you know less than we do. But um the the feel like I when the plane landed, I felt this like shunk. Like this there was this like different like my blood pressure felt lower and I this less. I mean, it's obviously it's in a warm place and it's awesome, but it just the there's no tension in the air. Even in Panama City, like it it feels like there's just no tension. Like it's and I I I was asking like Benny or someone about like what they thought about what was going on in America, and they're like, we don't. And I was like, come on, you know nothing about us, you don't care. Like that's like exciting that like we aren't in like our like our bullshit isn't like infecting your bull good stuff. But yeah, like that's even just the way we get treated there, it's like it feels like how we used to get treated before the pandemic. Like it felt like it feels like the pandemic kind of stripped away the artifice of like service or something. And now people are just like, I realize I'm just doing this for money. And it feels like that's not the case there. Actually, anywhere in Panama. Everywhere was everyone was super down to the airport, everyone's super nice.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yeah, it's funny. I was talking to a friend whose husband is Panamanian and she had a trip in San Francisco and he had never been there before, and he was just sort of shocked with the homeless uh crisis and just drug abuse and all of that. Never seen anything like it. And he just looked at his wife and he was like, Where are their families? Why is no one taking care of them? And it was just such a poignant like comment to make out of innocence, but also like, what? You know, it seems to so if you reduce it down, it's actually quite like it just you feel like it could be simple. And I know it's not, and I'm not trying to take anything away from that, but it was just like this purity of like, what?

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Can't we just try to take care of people? San Francisco is particularly bad. I mean, I I was even shocked by the uh the homeless situation in Canada, like people like literally just shooting up outside the fancy hotel I was standing, staying at. And it's like, wow, okay, we really are not helping anybody right now in the way that they should be helped.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Um, and I see that we see it too when we have guests come in. You can just see the nervous system that you're that you're talking about, like the immediate feeling of when you landed on that plane and this peace that kind of washes over you, and then it gets continues to become reinforced and embedded during your time here as you slow yourself down and you're like, oh, okay. And that's like for me, that's like the magic, you know, like it's just this opportunity to have a safe space and kind of hug out the noise for if it's only a week or whatever it can be for people. I do think it's medicine.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Yeah, well, and I did notice, I don't I noticed like there was there's no homeless people. Like that was a very like there wasn't one I didn't see any homeless people when I was in Panama, and it's both in Panama City and in uh in Cambu Tal. And it's just it's it really makes this me realize just how far we have fallen from the ideals that we claim to profess in this comp in this country. I love the story about how you guys found the place that Samsara is on. So maybe you could talk about how so like you so you land in Panama City or in Cambuetal with four bags. Where did you stay?

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Okay, so we are just like, we're gonna figure out how to buy a car. And it's totally different than navigating any sort of thing back in North America. You can buy a car in a couple hours and you walk away with your insurance, and so that was my mindset. We're gonna go to this used car dealership. We have$5,000 that we've allocated to our first vehicle. That's all we can spend. So we find a car and it has new seats in the car. And he's like, Oh, don't worry, by by three o'clock, we'll have seats and you'll have a steering wheel. And I'm like, okay, sure. So we've now gotten our first car, and I'm like, okay, so we can go. And he's like, No, you have no insurance. I'm like, what? But I just gave you my money. He's like, Yes, but we don't have insurance. So we're thinking we're getting ripped off, we're not clear. Finally, the guy's running around. He's like, usually this is a three-day process, but here you go. It was like six o'clock at night, gives us everything, and we are off now to Cambutal, straight shooting. And again, it was like the trip the year before. We had seen two other places, and it was so immediate that it was Cambu Tal that we had to just go directly to. So we're driving, we get to Cambutal, and we realized we like we actually don't have like a reservation anywhere to stay. We're just like, we're okay. We don't know what we want to do. We're thinking maybe we're buying a tent and we're gonna camp. So we did buy that on en route. And then by the time we got to Cambutal, it was quite late. And we're I said, I'm not pent, I'm not camping. And we found a little hostel and we stayed there for about a week while we tried to land and figure out, and then we ended up finding a rental house. And again, we had this mindset where we didn't want to just rush into a place and claim that we were going to buy something and this is what we were going to do. What was great for five days doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna be like a place that we should maybe throw all of our eggs in a basket. And so we sort of made this commitment to ourselves that we would give ourselves at least six weeks to just be. And I'm pretty type A personality. And about two and a half weeks into this just my chilling surfing vibes and me doing a yoga practice and walking the beach, I started to get pretty anxious of like, what's our purpose? What are we doing? We're spending our money that we don't really have, like, we need to figure out a plan. And it was at the same time, this is right around Christmas time. My birthday is December 23rd. So I was having this like this crisis on my birthday because I have no friends. There's no cell phone service, and there still isn't cell phone service, which is such a blessing. There's still no cell phone service in Cambu Tel. But I was having this moment where I couldn't even talk to anybody. Um and Mike just says, Okay, well, like what do you even want to do? And I'm like, Well, I just think we need to formulate a plan. Like, if we don't have land, like honestly, by the end of the year, this is like a week away, this is Christmas time. Like, this is really shooting myself. This is shooting him in the foot. He's really getting annoyed because he's like, I'm really happy surfing. Um, and I said, No, like, I don't know. I think we just need to like really figure something out here. And he was like, Okay. So I have that moment, and then like I swear to God, Mary, it was like 30 minutes later, knock on our door because no one can text. People stop by. This is how it works here. This is the art of the drop by. And so the one friend that we've made knocked on the door and he goes, Hey, I know you said like you didn't, you're not wanting to like look or rush anything, but I overheard this couple at the cantina saying that they have to sell their titled beachfront property. And I like look at Mike and I'm like, let's go down there, you know, let's go to the cantina. And he's like, Okay, well, let you know, we should probably wear like a button-down shirt and we should probably get dressed up. And so there we go, and we walk our butts down and we meet this couple and they're lovely, and they say, Yes, we have to sell, we need to move back to Spain. And we say, Okay, so they walk us to the property, they walk us down the road. And ironically enough, I know that the actual gates of Sansara are actually where we walked in that day because of the elevation and having to walk up this little hill. And she took us to the land where Sansara is, and at this point, there is nothing there, right? We built everything from the ground up, pure jungle, can't even see the ocean, and we're oceanfront. It's thick with weeds and just brush. And this man with an extra machete for Mike to walk around the whole primer of the property. It was B-Y-O-M. Exactly. He's like, okay, you are gonna walk with me, and we're gonna have to cut through exactly the square footage of this space. So, which led to me having now about 45 minutes to have a broken English-Spanish conversation with this woman and just talk to her about like, you know, like why do you want to go move back home? Where are you, you know, all this stuff? And and what kind of came out of that conversation was like for me almost like I didn't know if I was like hallucinating or, you know, ate a wild mushroom or what. But she said to me, she goes, I've always imagined that this space would be a yoga center. And I was like, what? Okay. And she goes, Yes. I just, you know, it's something that for me always felt like this was just what it would be. And I'm like, okay. And I'm like, why are you moving back home? She goes, Oh, I'm moving back home to just, you know, be closer to family and I to reconnect with my teaching. I'm a special education teacher. And then my eyeballs, like, almost, I'm just like, is someone pray? Is this a joke? Like, and I'm like, oh, okay, okay. And then I'm like, that is wild. I'm like, also I'm like, hurry up, Mike, get the heck, get hurry up and get back here, you know. I need to tell you all this because it's like it's meant to be. So she tells me all this, and she said she's held on to this property for seven years that just haven't been able to like get any momentum on going on it. She had a small yoga studio in a town about two hours away that she was running, and it just was too much for her to be back and forth between these two locations. And she just started talking more, and she's like, I know, even down to the part where I envisioned that the yoga studio inshallah would have a bridge that would walk into it. Mary, you only know this because you've been here, but there is a bridge that walks into the yoga shala. And again, I had no context to even that conversation. And only when I read back on my journal do I see that this was actually written down. And I'm like, wow, like this was a plan larger than me before me. And as, you know, as crazy as that can sound, I don't know. I think that there is a power in that. And it was just something that the community also had blessed even before we had gotten here. And they appeared out of the jungle. Basically, it was like me saying, This is 100% the space, handshake deal. We brought them up to our rental house. I think we like cheers with a glass of wine, and and then honestly, we had a lawyer and we dealt with the municipal and it was like wash our hands, never saw them again.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

How what was the what was the date? What was the like the time period between the cantina and closing? January January 3rd or 2nd was the closing date. So before you so you had you basically the ultimatum that you gave actually wound up coming true. We need to own property by the end of the year. Yep. That is insane.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

It is insane.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

And then it was just like Mike's just looking at me like, holy shit, what are we going now?

SPEAKER_00 18:49

And was it the property that you have or have you added on to it since?

SPEAKER_01 18:52

We've added on since. So the initial phase one, and we opened with that as well, um, was more or less where the where the reception is. And we had seven rooms. And we at that time when we first opened, we're cooking breakfast for all of our guests, and we had like a little happy hour bar that Mike would bartend. And my sister and I would cook for everybody, and then we had a small little cleaning team. And at the exact same time, we had purchased the land next to us because I wanted a we had a pool, we needed to have a pool, and we needed to have a restaurant. And so, and two more rooms. So at the same time that we were soft opening with uh seven rooms and just, you know, having a small house running everything, Mike was busy with a crew of like 30 or 40 people getting a pool ready, a restaurant ready, and two other rooms. Because I was busy that whole year selling retreats to people who were believing me and I had no renders and I just would have phone calls with people and I'd say, yes, we're gonna open on April 15th, 2015. Can you send me pictures of your face? No, I can't. Okay, you know what? Sure, yeah, we'll book a retreat. And for some reason, again, I don't know if it was just like the the Saskatchewan or something. There, the people believe me. They were like, I trust you. I will send you my money. And they did that. And it was such a cool momentum that we all do better with deadlines, at least I do. And in construction, you need those as well. And it was just an awesome way for us to just kind of propel forward and also to have cash flow coming in, knowing that we weren't gonna have to wait a year to convince people to come once we were open. I mean, it's because it does take time. It's retreats.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

I feel like I'm I'm kind of the same way. I'm very much like a jump off the hill and build your wings on the way down. I mean, that's kind of how I've done everything, you know, to some great success and to some massive failures, but you know, it's it's how I have to go. So I completely understand. So how quick how quickly do you think like were you like do were you selling out like immediately?

SPEAKER_01 20:47

We so when we got, when we broke ground and we started, again, sort of that same mindset came in. So Mike's busy, he's on the he's on the ground building, teaching, construction. And I was like, okay, how am I going to feel like I am of purpose and value here? Like that is really important to my makeup. And I'm like, I I can't be, you know, with the construction guys. It's just not a skill set of mine. But I did want to learn how to do stone stonework. So Mike's like, then start learning how to do decorative walls and I'm gonna teach you how to do stonework. He's like, start getting all the gardens ready, start getting all the flowers ready. And so that for a probably like the first six months, I was just doing all the beautification process. Like, how can I make sure that we have mature plants? So and so I would start with all of this whole process. And then the interiors of the rooms started to become ready. And he's like, Okay, you need to, you know, finish and finalize all of these rooms doing buy trips, and you need to stick to, you know, more or less this kind of budget. And it started to empower the division of roles, and we net we don't really overlap with anything in the business. That's a question that gets asked to us a lot how do you work with your husband? And I'm like, we do, but we don't. Like we have a similar vision and ethos of how we want to operate, but we don't, we know who where our lanes are, and it's been a recipe for success for. The last you know 13, 14 years doing this. And slowly I started to say, okay, we're getting finished with this stuff. And we knew we were about one year out of being finished. And I said, He's like, You need to start learning how we both need to start learning how, but I don't think I have the bandwidth to figure out how to build a website. And again, I was like, we have no internet here. This is gonna be really hard. Uh, okay. So I'll figure that out. So I just started learning and figuring out how to build a basic website that we could just start to host information. And at the same time, I would spend hours peeling through the yoga alliance uh directory from A to Z basically. And I would start cross-referencing leaders and teachers and just seeing if I thought they'd be like a good fit. And I started inviting them down. So I would send hundreds of emails introducing myself and our vision. And for every hundred email that I would send out, say, follow our journey on Facebook, because at the time that was what you did, you know, two, three people would reply. And but it was enough because I knew that it would just create momentum. And those people were the ones that were supposed to be here. So yes, the day that we opened on April 15th for retreats, we had a whole full season um ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Yeah. It was super cool.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

That is un that's like not normal. Like it seems like everything just kind of fell into place in this like kind of perfect way.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Yeah. And it and like pulling up by your bootstraps, like, you know, like I like I said, I don't consider myself even a highly organized person, but I knew exactly what we needed to do, and I needed the people that I wanted to be around. And I just knew what would I want to experience? And this is hilarious, Mary. I had been on one retreat prior to this whole thing. One retreat. It's like I didn't even have a night concept to copy anyone. And at the time, Pinterest wasn't a thing for interiors, and you just you had to use your own mind and your own imagination. And I I'm really grateful for that, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

So I guess so. Between the two of you, uh, who does the business side of this? Like who's doing like the books? And like, how did you figure out that this was gonna be financially gonna work? And like that seems like it's its own weird thing.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah, I did a lot of like the contract development and I kind of taught myself a little bit about you know operating costs, but I would say I have an amazing team. One woman in particular, her name is Linda Dawson. Shout out to you, Linda. Linda, she's been with us for 10 years and is incredible. She was down surfing in Guanaco one day, uh, living out there. She's Canadian also, and she came by for a smoothie. And then I offered her a job. I was like, You're cool. I miss not having great women around me because uh, you know, and I was like, Can you can you move here? Like it's only like 45 minutes away. And she's like, ha ha. And I was like, I'm serious. And so she was working at some surf hostel there. I don't think he was very happy with me, but it's fine. And off she went, and she's been a good friend and incredible with all of our books and just management. She ran Sensara as our general manager for years, and she's just been like such an incredible thread to the whole business.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Wow. That's I mean, that's a crazy leap of faith to be like, hey, surfer, drinking a smoothie. Do you want to run my fine the financial side of my yoga empire? We definitely grew into that.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

She started as like a great bartender and server, and then it just started to grow. We just always just grew together. It was such a neat thing. Like and I I expressed that to friends who, you know, are opening businesses and doing new things. I said, you know, since our didn't look like the shiny penny it looks like right now. Like when I first opened and I looked back at pictures, I love that there was like it was just a little chaos, but also it was beautiful too. And I think the reason why we have such a high retention rate amongst guests is that they've also seen that journey and can appreciate just like the growth, and that we've never claimed to know everything or be perfect in hospitality, but we just try our best. And I don't know, I just feel like that's like super relationship forward in that essence.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

And you listen to your guests. I remember Claire was like, I wish we had palapas on the beach. And I think she mentioned that to you. And then the next summer there were palapas on the beach. Like it's it's like amazing that you kind of can roll with that and kind of hear what people want and make that happen.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Yeah, I had that compliment last week. It was like a month ago. I have a returning host, she's been with us for years, and she's like, uh sent a message about something not wanting gluten or whatever. And I was like, Yeah. She's like, I'm like, yeah, we can have gluten-free bread. She's like, Oh, I'm like, yeah, all you have to do is ask. I just didn't think about it because I don't eat that way. And that's also like, you know, I have to pull the lens back a bit. And then she messaged me because they were here last week and she goes, by the way, not all the gluten-free options, they didn't go unnoticed. So I knew as soon as I gave you that feedback, you'd run with it. And I'm like, yes, it's a gift. I need it, you know, like you never want to get stuck.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

Well, and it's, you know, like to like in my in my own to parallel it to something that's going on with me, you know, I deed to those those all women dance parties. Um and uh they're the greatest thing I've ever done in my life. And I put a I put a notebook on the edge of the stage for people to like write down requests, and everybody's always kind of floored by that that I'm what that I take requests and and I'm like, first of all, I I take suggestions. None of these are promises, but I but I do want to know like what the room wants because you know, like if if some everyone's writing on 90s hip hop and I'm not playing 90s hip hop, then I I would not I would not have picked up on that if like if unless people are telling me. And so I I love getting requests, and then I also love when I play it and people are like, yay, she played my request. It's like a very small way to like, you know, make people feel seen and heard. And even if I didn't play any of the songs and it was just performative, people still have the illusion that they have some kind of say over what I'm over what I'm doing. And, you know, I think that, you know, that's kind of a negative way to see it. Positive way is, you know, listening to your people. No, I agree. It's not that hard to to make things to help people and have them be seen. Little tiny details are actually, I think, more important than like the big picture things. I completely agree. Yeah. I remember Mike saying a couple years, like one of the times, because uh when we get the little spiel about that you guys have given, you know you don't really do that so much anymore. I don't feel like you guys have done that in a couple of years, but um that's not a that's not a criticism. Uh I've already heard the story many times. Uh but I remember Mike and one of the times mentioning that like the the land that Sansara is on is like like three water things come together, or it was like three tri there was like it was a tribal area that was very important or something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

So when he was building, you know, and building out foundations, they came across um a lot of pre-Columbic artifacts. And one in particular was this like it was a cool day. And I think they thought they were gonna hit gold, honestly. They kind of put in this called a koa, which is like a like a hoe that helps you kind of dig holes. And so they're pushed, push the koa down, and then all of a sudden there's like a void, and it felt like they were like entering into like a portal of like underground goods because they had been finding all of this broken pottery and whole pieces, and so there they are late one night, and they're just lamps on there, they're they're they're down for figuring out what what treasure they're going to find. And I'm just kind of like laughing in the background and I'm walking home at this point. But he did come out with this beautiful bird's head, and it was super cool. And I had a friend who could sort of study it and kind of the representation of what that artifact was and what it could have possibly represented. And the conclusion came out that there is like a river that kind of flows through Sensara, and all this pottery was kind of found along the banks of it. And so the theory is like where we're located is in front of a protected bay. So it would have been a safe place for people to come off of their boat and maybe perform rituals or camp or be on this land, and then washing their things in fresh water, washing their bowls, plates, and this specific bird's head would have been representative of like royalty or like shamanic, um, like on an end of a staff or something that someone of, you know, tribal power would have maybe had. Um, so that's sort of what we've gone with, and we think it's really special and potent and um beautiful. Also, we have it in a we're figuring out what we could maybe do with it to showcase it because it's pretty neat.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

And what happened with did you keep the other pieces of pottery and stuff that you found? Yeah, we have lots of it. I mean, we continue to find lots of it, which is so cool. That is incredible. I mean, I you would almost think that like an architectural or not architectural, um, archaeological somebody or another would be interested in like Yeah, we're like maybe we don't want to tell them. Yeah, exactly. That's I mean, you know, don't want to disturb any kind of like native burial ground situation, kind of like how America's built entirely on a Native American burial ground. So now we're here, we're 12 years later. You've just been killing it on this. I know, it's wild. But I'm feeling very grateful for it all. It's you're raising children down there too. You've got two of them, right? How old are they?

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Yeah, they're the best. The almost 17, 7, 7. She's turning 17, though, I think, in her mind. And then I have a nine-year-old boy. So I have Asher and Ocean. They're amazing little kids. And their entire so they go to school down there at the at a school, at a school that you that you started. Did you start the school? Yes, I did. Myself and a cohort of five dedicated parents. We got together over three years ago and we said, What are we doing? And I was we were driving our kids. Mike and I were driving our kids, and another family was driving kids an hour each way to go to an international school. And it was a wonderful school. And we were, you know, happy with it. But it was just like, our kids didn't sign up to be in a car two hours a day. And this isn't it. And I just, again, if like if any sort of, you know, flame is lit for me to just take something and run, I love the idea of a challenge. And I was like, let's just do it. Let's just do it ourselves. And we kind of formulated a board and we just started chipping away with fundraising and crowdfunding and figuring out a way that it could not just serve, you know, children from expact communities, that it can serve the whole community, which was really important to myself and everybody actually. I think this is why we have such an amazing community in Cambuotel, is that we were all really aligned on education being like the bedrock of any sort of community. And I was like, hey, well, let's just figure out a way that we can create sponsorships for children whose families may not be able to afford it. Let's figure out a way to just fundraise, fundraise, fundraise, fundraise and pull good teachers in. And we felt like the Montessori method was something that could kind of encompass like the one room schoolhouse because it is a small community and we don't have enough kids to support like 10 kids in a grade one classroom, 10 kids in a grade two classroom. Like we need to figure out a way that they can kind of grow together and kind of do it. Yeah, it's just it's it's still it's still a large part of my day. I think I spend probably three or four hours a day helping uh figure out how we can continue to make it better and and it's growing. I started with like well, I think around 10 kids, and now we have like 36 children in the space, which is how many teachers do you have? We have two, three, four, five teachers, and we're currently building out our middle school program, which is from the 12 to 15 program. And so we're gonna be hiring some more teachers come this uh August.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

So are you trying to like import teachers to come move to Campital? Are you trying to train people? I mean, like both, both. Like what do they do? What do we do for schools in that area before this?

SPEAKER_01 33:10

There's a local school here. It's just, it's just there's it's just underfunded and underserved, and it's sad that it is what it is. Um and I think who knows, I hope that they're they can get more resourcing through the government. But I mean, it's Panama has a huge disparity between the wealth and not. I mean, there's not a there's no homeless crisis per se in Cambu Tal, but you know, it's still like an extreme in the country with you know, private schools having a lot of money, public schools not having enough funding. I mean, that's a pretty much a global issue. But so for us, we just had to try to take matters in our own hands and that anyone who wanted to attend can put it in application and we can try to figure out a way to get them there.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

That's incredible. So you so you made a school and you are bringing in teacher. I mean, it's like what's incredible is just like you know, you just like see a white space and you just m fill it up with stuff. You know, you've you need something, you make it happen. You're not gonna wait for somebody else to come and do it for you. And it's no, and probably annoying to a lot of people in that essence, but I don't really care because I just know it's a need that has to be filled. And the can't and the community wants it too. I mean, are the people that are your that are in this, like what is is it are there a lot of expats down there?

SPEAKER_01 34:16

There are, but I think there's a lot of, you know, uh families where maybe one family member is from Panama, they've married maybe someone from a different country. We have uh, you know, a lot of beautiful families that in sort of that sort of setup. Uh families that have found their way through Sansara as a filter system that have relocated that maybe have um can work abroad or can work you know from home. You know, other people have decided to relocate and start small businesses here. I mean, it's really grown since COVID, not in a way that's like not sustainable or healthy. I really love the growth of how how Hakambu Tal is moving and in the direction because I think the people are all really wonderful. Um, and then just these young families that are now seeing that there is a school. So I think they're seeing that there's a potential that they could have a life down here, you know. I think without the school, I don't think that the town would grow, you know, in a nice way. And I think, and uh for me, it's like I said, it's just more of like a a piece that can serve the community.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

I mean, what are what do you think your community could use? Like what's the like if somebody was if somebody restaurants? Oh yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, restaurants are always a good thing. But I mean, I I just think that like, especially right now with things being so messed up and not being saying that Campbell is the only destination, but I think that people it this is a good story, I think, for people to hear that like you can just go someplace and you can you might if you if you allow yourself to open your eyes to the possibility you can make the things happen. I mean, that's I mean, that's something that's always been my way of doing things because I feel like I've always wanted things that weren't there. And so I I'm like, well, I want it. And if I want it, somebody else might want it. So I'm just gonna do it and see what happens. And those kind of leaps of faith, they're hard and they're scary and they take bravery. But we're living in a very unlike there's no, there's no, it's all chaos right now. So why not? You know, so I feel like that's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

And I think like that's what's been nice about some of the growth that's coming through is that people are recognizing those voids, like, oh, we don't have a laundromat, so let's open this. Oh, there's not really like a small store. Okay, let's open this. Okay, we don't have a coffee shop. We should open a coffee shop. Um, and that has been happening in the last, you know, six, seven years, and it's it's really awesome to see, you know. So for me, I think it's in the hands of people who have like genuinely cared or they've visited here annually, and they're like, okay, maybe I'm gonna start to figure out how I can have like a business here that can support the local economy, that can support local people. And um, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

What's the biggest like culture shock that you have like when you go back to Canada or whatever? Like, what's the like, oh my god, I can't believe I used to live like this? No one waves in their car or honks in like a nice way.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Just general enterprise. Everyone here is like, just yeah, I'm like, okay. Like, we always are like doof doof wave, everyone waves. Everyone acknowledges everybody, like everyone gives eye contact. I think that's like the crazy thing for me. I'm like, you could be in the grocery store line and you're like, oh yeah, I guess people like don't want to talk. Cool. I know not saying that to like stripe out conversation, but I'm just like transactional behavior. I just find is like very transactional when we travel. That's a big one. I find it funny when whenever we travel to the US, we end up always in like in an Uber driver and we end up speaking Spanish the whole time. That's interesting. Yep. And it's like it's like the most amazing feeling because I feel like everyone becomes at ease.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

I mean, you're relating to them on a level that they don't normally get related to. If if anybody's even speaking to them, first and foremost. Um, how did you did you speak Spanish going in?

SPEAKER_01 37:40

No, we had no Spanish going into this at all. And it's still not where it needs to be. And my kids are outsmarting me quite a bit, but I feel like I've I'm starting to take a next new step in just like growth and learning. And I'm actually excited with how I learned how to speak Spanish because we learned from it through the lens of this specific community and how what the cadence of how they say things and certain slang. And, you know, coming from an underserved community with education not being super much, it wasn't a it isn't a priority. It's a farming community and a fishing village. You know, it lit the literacy rates are really high here. I'm really glad that I learned how to speak through sound and by listening to people. And then that's the way that I speak Spanish, is Cambotaleño Spanish. Like this is how we talk. Because I've hired people from the city and immediately there's just this classism and there's this abrasiveness that our local staff will feel. And I'm like, I'm glad I I sound country. This is awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

You're like a sub, it's like a southern accent, basically.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Yes, 100%. I'm like, oh, it's like sweet, and you're just like loving. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

So you didn't have any kind of formal training to learn how to do your kids speak Spanish? Yes, they do.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

And they're supposed to be more formal through school, through through learning in that way, reading and writing it. So it's great. Like I said, it's not it it uh it gets me through. Put me in a lawyer's office. I'm not gonna be able to negotiate anything, but get me through the day in hospitality, you know, talking with friends and family, hearing about their stories, I can understand everything and get get through my day. Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

The understanding, I think, is like the most important part because I always I never understand anything in other I'll be like, I'll hear like a noun and I'll be like, they're talking about cars, maybe. Like it's you know, you kind of I I can't do anything when it comes to that. So do you guys have any like plans? Like what's your like what is your ultimate dream? I mean, you're kind of living it in my mind, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

I mean, Mike and I talk about it. We're like, and we we keep reducing it down to like where else would we want to be? And we've just said, like, how would we want to scale Sensora? What does it look like? What would the next 10 years be in our next 10-year cycle? And for us, like it's just continuing to refine the business and just to continue to, you know, bring in just different layers that can support the community, that can support, you know, a healthy, you know, being ab in the green annually, you know, we have months where it's very slow and we're not in we're in the red for sure. And it's like, how do we continue to find and feather that line of, you know, having this beautiful business that because we always choose to keep everyone employed annually, even though we can go through months where it's really quiet. That's just really important to us. So it's like, okay, our next set is like, how do we figure out how do we have a 12-month uh profitable business and what do we need to do to get there? So that's kind of like where we put a lot of our focus on um during the high season, like when you guys come down when retreats are in full swing. That for me is like the engine is running and I'm definitely less busy. And then it's the slower season that keeps me more busy. And for Mike, it's a bit of the opposite. He also we all we own a company called Beta, which is a consulting and design construction company. And he's busy right now with building homes, supporting people who are new, newly moving and relocating. Um, and he's just really talented at management. So he has like a crew of up to like 36 people that he manages on various projects. So, you know, supporting him through that. I love design. So he definitely runs with the clients, and then I'll I'll support on the execution and the aesthetic for most of those projects. So I don't see that slowing down. And I in fact, I hope I can welcome more of it. Um I feel like that's kind of our next.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

So there's like a second, so you have a second business within this. Yeah. Veda, Veta. What's that all about?

SPEAKER_01 41:22

It's so fun. I think for us, we just saw this again, this opportunity that people were wanting to relocate to this space. And we wanted to like protect the beauty of Cambu Tal. So we figured if we could be a part of that component and even like a from a visual aesthetic to make things look nice and and and work well with function and flow that we should be a part of and support people that way. It's been awesome. It's been super organic and it's been super successful.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

So Mike is the build and you're like the interiors, or is that how that works? Yep. That's cool. So it's so fun. So that's like a separate, like it's a whole separate business, and you've got like different tax returns and everything is like a whole other thing. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Yeah, we have a whole different I mean Sensara supports it a lot, which is great, but yeah, it's a hundred percent separate, which is so neat to have something kind of independent from Sensara, but it's 100% fed through Sensara.

unknown 42:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

So I have a weird question. So, like, you know, is there a part that feels like you're like white people that have come into this area with people of color? And I mean, is there any like animosity or weirdness with that?

SPEAKER_01 42:34

I mean, I'm very protective of Cambuotel for sure. And then in the next part, I'm always like, you know, I I manage and run a WhatsApp thread that has like every single community member on it. And it's like myself and three other people that admit it. And we're always like, should we let these people in? Are they allowed? And it's and it's like myself and two Panamani, three Panamanians, which I feel like I'm really grateful to be considered a part of that. And it's like, yeah, for me, I'm like I'm protective over people not feeling like we're colonizing uh a nation, uh, this this town. I mean, in the next breath, I know it's almost inevitable, but I don't feel like it's coming into the wrong hands. I think that everyone that is relocating here is they know why they loved Cambu Tal in the beginning. And then the say there's like always gonna be a couple of people that you're just like, uh, are you paying people appropriately? Are they in social security? Are you taking care of them? Like, let's not make sure that we're abusing anything that isn't correct. And I'm trying to figure out a way to like add a sales tax to to sponsor local children for for any new hire or new build that person that lives here has to sponsor a child to go to school. Wait, I don't know if I can really enforce that. Wait, wait, what do you want to do? Let me wait, I what do you mean? I want to create like a like an incentive like a mandatory relocation fee that any new person that moves to Cambuetal has to sponsor a child locally to attend the Montessori school.

SPEAKER_00 43:52

I mean, that's a hard thing to enforce, but that's you know I know I mean, I there's only five hundred people though in Cambu Tal. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So uh that should be so you so you they would pay like how much would that be? Five thousand dollars a year. Oh that's like a like it's almost like a s like a wheel tax for your car or something. It's like a like a non like a non-Panamanian fee. I don't I don't think that's too much to ask. I mean I didn't think so either. Um but that's a thing. Maybe I can figure it out. You could also add it on as like a I mean, I know you asked for donations to the thing to the to the school in the when you finalize things with your bill, but maybe there could be like there's a five percent surcharge on everything that goes towards the education of the people about this area. And I don't think anybody would be like, take this off. I don't I don't agree with this.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

Yeah, I'm gonna talk to my accountant and get creative with how we can figure out a funnel.

SPEAKER_00 44:43

I'm also pretty good at figuring out those things as well. If you want some bounce ideas off of I can I can figure out a way to phrase anything.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

That's one thing I think the community is also needing is just like just more people that want to come together to help support locals and also include them in the conversation with where we the the town needs to go and things that are really important that I only I have a privileged lens that is making sure that I'm not the only one contributing to that conversation.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

Who can help foster that?

SPEAKER_00 45:10

Yeah. I just I I think that just the overall like the the the the the thrust of your story is just like just keep your eyes open. I feel like this is something that and it's you know, I think some people think it's too late, I've already done some things or whatever. I'm not 23 years old, just got over a professional spe skiing career, and now I'm you know, like I mean it is a it is an incredible story, but also it's it's it's anybody can do it. You just have to be willing. I mean, not everybody, there's definitely privilege and things like that that go into things, and but I do think that the you the universe does put it right in front of you, and you just really have to try to see it and believe in yourself at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 45:48

Yeah, and it that's it. And surround yourself with people that are smarter than you and better than you, and you push each other, and that's it. Yeah, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 45:58

Well, this has been incredible. Thank you so much for for giving me time in your life. This was such a great hang.

SPEAKER_01 46:05

How can people find you? You guys can visit us at sensarresort.com. Or you can find me on Instagram if you want to send me a little personal message. It's Sensar Janelle, not very original, but it's a way to remember me.

SPEAKER_00 46:16

And yeah, always welcome just an email. And Sensar has a really great Instagram in general. So if you you probably should follow Sensar on Instagram because it it just I look at the pictures and I'm like, it's just you know, it's like porn, you know? Like it's my kind of it's my kind of OnlyFans. Yes. Um, all right, well, thank you so much. Thank you, everybody who tuned into today. Thank you. Bye. Thanks for listening to All of In My Lady Business with me, Mary Missy. Uh, we'd love for you to like, review, subscribe, follow us at Olip in my Lady Business on the gram. And if you're a female identifying person and you want to dance, you can follow. I mean, everybody can follow it. But if you want to be a part of the magic at Hot Squash dance party, sign up for the mailbook to find out where our next party's gonna be. And if you are looking for a DJ in the Chicago land area or anywhere else, you know, money's the same color everywhere. Fly us out. Toastinamdjs.com has the best. And listen to my radio show. I have a radio show on Chirp Radio at chirpradio.org. That's Mondays. Every Monday, we call them Tokyo T S T. Today's episode is produced by Shiraz Data Theme Song, composed and performed by You guessed it, Shiraz Data. Alright, guys, peace out.